NY-23 is following the lead of GA-10

As I listen to the coverage and posturing over the significance of the upset of the GOP establishment in the NY-23 Congressional election, I am baffled at the commentary about how new this is.

It's only new because the GOP establishment is just now starting to get it. (They didn't understand the Tea Party movement in April.) But for those who were looking, this rumbling made its first appearance back in 2007 in the special election to replace Charlie Norwood.

There was a heavy primary field, and I wrote about my discomfort with the establishment candidate, Jim Whitehead, at the time. But he wound up "coming out on top of the ten-candidate June 19 special election with 43.5% of the vote to Broun’s 20.7%"

Then in a surprise runoff, although Esquire humbly labeled it the "The Least Important Election in U.S. History," Paul Broun came from behind to win.

Now take a look at Broun's primary numbers - 20%... that's about the same that Hoffman was getting as an anti-establishment candidate (before the big guns started endorsing him).

The core has been unhappy for a while now.

BZ to John Nichols at the Nation. He got it. He wrote about it at the time.

"Whitehead responded by attacking Broun, using the standard anti-gay, anti-crime rhetoric of the party's congressional leadership.
It didn't work. And there is a lesson here for those who suggest that the dip in the popularity of Congress is merely a problem for Democrats. The disdain for Washington's way of doing things appears to be bipartisan."

We are still on that trajectory. Is the GOP awake yet?

I like the backdrop...

Who knows how the command picked who got to be up there? Are these guys the local Sailors of the Quarter, Sailors of the Year?



If ANYTHING about selecting them based on the way the look crosses your mind, then you have been poisoned by the Diversity bullies. If they were actually selected based on that.... well shame on us.

When Will the President Take Responsibility for It All?

We're nine months into the Obama administration and the economy is still in the tank, the federal government is spending 1.4 TRILLION dollars more than they collected in taxes this year, and the "strategy" in AFG is adrift. But we still hear blame being directed to the Bush administration... they gave us a the financial crisis, a deficit, nothing in Afghanistan, ad nauseum.

All the while, pursuing the government takeover of medicine in the country, because we are in a self-declared, media hyped, politically driven "crisis." Actually letting those in Congress decide decide what goes into the trough.

No ownership. No responsibility. If the economy were rebounding, the budget reasonable, the war being won...the President would rightly take the credit that his actions were having a positive effect. But none of that is happening. The President needs to own these problems, if his approach isn't working, then he needs to change.

Hmm... maybe in his view it IS all working. Manufacturing a crises so deep, only the gummit can save us?

What's the end game here?

Why is the President picking on Fox?

This administration may be many things. But they are not stupid. While their foreign policy to date has been marked by an apparent lack of long range vision, these guys know politics - and they play hardball.

Today's NY Times piece by David Carr concludes that "trading punches with cable shouters seems a bit too common" I just have a hard time believing that the White House would be playing like rank amateurs in the world of power politics.

So what is the end game? Take this quote about Fox from White House Communications Director Anita Dunn in the same article. "we don't need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave."

Then here's Rahm and Axelrod today too, a report that "Both advisers made the point that Fox is not a legitimate news outlet..." quoting Axelrod as saying about Fox "...as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization."

Another site gives Rahm's quote in his "State of the Union" interview on CNN "It's not a news organization so much as it has a perspective." (We heard the same comments back in 2007 from the moveon.org but that was not the White House.)

What is the difference between a legitimate news organization and not? Access is one. Is there more? Do we really want the White House telling us what speech is legitimate?

I hope not.

Why Rio Won Their Olympics Bid

For Rio, a major appeal was bringing the Olympics to South America for the first time.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said in the news conference afterward that in addition to its excellent bid, Rio had the "extra-added value of going for the first time to a continent that's never had the Games."

He also noted that Brazil helped its chances this year when it did not get the 2012 Games awarded four years ago.

"Rio remained humble," he said. "They wanted to listen, to repair their shortcomings."

Who knew that humility was one of the criteria. Do you think maybe we sent the wrong guy to plead our case?

We Remember.

- “Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children.” – President George W. Bush, Nov. 11, 2001

Navy Captain Jack Punches was killed in the attack at the Pentagon. He was a shipmate and is missed.

Roll of the Fallen

On Memorial Day, we remember those Navy cryptologists who fell in the line of duty.

CTM3 Matthew J. Bryant, Islamabad, Sept 20, 2008.
CTT1 Steven Phillip Daugherty, Baghdad, July 6, 2007
CTI3 Patrick Price and CTI3 Craig Rudolph lost in the EA-3B off the USS Nimitz, Jan 25, 1987

Sgt Robert Hrisoulis, USMC Vietnam 21 Jan 1971

Lost in the C2 crash off Vietnam December 12, 1971
CT03 James M. Coon, USN
CTISN John M. Deremigio, USN
CTO1 Donald E. Dickerson, USN
CTOSN Stephen H. Elliott, USN
CTRI Walter R. Woods, Jr., USN
CTM2 Gregory K. Zeller, USN

CH46 Crash in Vietnam 28 Dec 1969
CTC Robert S. Gates, USN
MgySgt Edward R. Storm, USMC

CH46 Crash, Quang Nam, Vietnam 10 March 1970
Sgt Larry W. Duke, USMC

The EC-121 shot down by the North Koreans on April 15, 1969
CT3 Gary R. Ducharme, USN
CT3 John A. Miller, USN
CTI John H. Potts, USN
CTC Frederick A. Randall, USN
CTC Richard E. Smith, USN
CT3 Philip D. Sundby, USN
LT Robert F. Taylor, USN
CT2 Stephen J. Tesmer, USN
SSgt Hugh M. Lynch, USMC

Operation Union II, Quang Tin, South Vietnam 26 May 1968
Maj James W. Ayers, USMC

USS Pueblo attacked and captured by North Koreans
FN Duane D. Hodges, USN 23 Jan 1968

Near Quang Tri, Vietnam
Cpl Stephen L. Traughber, USMC 10 Sep 1967

The attack on the USS Liberty by the Israelis on June 8, 1967
CT3 William B. Allenbaugh, USN
LCDR Philip M. Armstrong, Jr. USN
SN Gary R. Blanchard, USN
SN Francis Brown, USN
CT2 Ronnie J. Campbell, USN
CT3 Jerry L. Converse, USN
CT2 Robert B. Eisenberg, USN
CT3 Jerry L. Goss, USN
CTI Curtis A. Graves, USN
CTSN Lawrence P. Hayden, USN
CTI Warren E. Hersey, USN
CTSN Alan Higgins, USN
SN Carl L. Hoar, USN
CT2 Richard W. Keene, Jr., USN
CTSN James L. Lenau, USN
CTC Raymond E. Linn, USN
CTI James M. Lupton, USN
CT3 Duane R. Marggraf, USN
CTSN David W. Marlborough, USN
CT2 Anthony P. Mendle, USN
CTSN Carl C. Nygren, USN
LT James C. Pierce, USN
ICFN David Skolak, USN
CTI John C. Smith, Jr., USN
CTC Melvin D. Smith, USN
PC2 John C. Spicher, USN
GMG3 Alexander N. Thompson, Jr., USN
CT3 Thomas R. Thornton, USN
CT3 Philippe C. Tiedtke, USN
LT Stephen S. Toth, USN
CTI Frederick J. Walton, USN
Sgt Jack L. Raper, USMC
Cpl Edward E. Rehmeyer, USMC
Allen M. Blue, NSA

Quang Nam, Vietnam January 30, 1968
SSgt Alfred T. Dwyer, USMC

The Kami Seya fire on September 24, 1965
CTSA Roger W. Alex, USN
CTASA William E. Briley, USN
CTSN Wilfred D. Cordell, USN
CTSN Dennis E. Etzweiler, USN
CT3 Archie R. Garofalo, USN
CTSA John D. House, USN
LTJG Ernest D. Moody, USN
CT3 Wayne E. Tower, USN
CTSN James K. Whitman, USN
CT3 Gregory S. Williams, USN


LCPI Richard E. McKown, USMC
Sgt Paul C. Rodrigues, USMC

Shot down off the coast of the Soviet Union April 8, 1950
CT3 Edward Purcell, April 8, 1950

"They Served in Silence"


While working on this list, I found some place where the dates on the NSA wall don't match up with dates on other virtual walls. Looks like another project.